Persian MS 840 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)
Persian Manuscripts
Contents
ديوان
ديوان
Physical Description
Collation
Condition
Layout
Written in 1 to 2 columns with 17 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.
Hand(s)
Written in clear black nasta‘līq by Muḥammad Ṣadiq.
Decoration
Illumination: Folios 1b, 90b, and 157b bear scalloped domed headpieces with gilt palmette foliate scrollwork on an ultramarine ground and an uninscribed central cartouche, and four vertical radiating lines.
1b: 102 × 62 mm.
90b: 121 × 62 mm.
157b: 88 × 55 mm.
Ruling: Folios 1b and 2a ruled in gold outlined with thin black lines, and surrounded by another single line. The margins of folios 2b onwards ruled with single lines of ultramarine blue.
Inscriptions: The right pastedown numbered ‘DF 209 + 209a’ with a price of ‘£12 12 s 6 d’.
The second right flyleaf a side (f. iia) bears the title in the hand of former owner Duncan Forbes.
Folio 1a bears an Arabic supplication and partly legible notes, including one at mid-left dated 14 Ẕī-al-Qa‘dah [1]123 AH (24 Dec. 1711).
Bookplates: The left pastedown: ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ with pencilled class mark ‘2/J’, and class mark ‘Persian MS 39’ with the number crossed out and ‘840’ written aside.
Binding
Probably rebound in Britain, possibly for former owner Duncan Forbes.
British-made thin-weight, cream-coloured wove endpapers added to the beginning and end. Resewn on three recessed cords laced into pastebaords. Edges trimmed, spattered gray-blue, with blue and white striped cloth endbands adhered to head and tail. Covered in half marbled calf leather, tigh-backed and tight-jointed, with Empire-patterned marbled paper sides and squares along the edges.
Spine panels paletted with gold single fillet lines. A red goatskin skiver label titled with two of the three works within the volume.
219 × 123 × 25 mm.
Handle binding with caution. In fair but stable condition, with extensive abrasion to the exterior.
Many folios throughout bear repeated black oval seal impressions in three stacked nasta‘līq lines with displaced letters, double ruled, read from right to left, then down and up at the end. with the name of a former owner Suhrāb bin Rustam dated [1]121 AH (1709–1710 CE)
‘عبده سهراب بن رستم’
12 × 20 mm.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Subsequently owned by one Suhrāb bin Rustam who repeatedly impressed his seal throughout the volume, and another individual who inscribed the volume in 14 Ẕī-al-Qa‘dah [1]123 AH (24 Dec. 1711).
While the circumstances under which this volume arrived in Britain remain unclear, King's College Professor of Oriental Languages Duncan Forbes (1798–1868), who describes the volume in his published catalogue (p. 69, nos. 209 and 209a), before he sold his manuscript collection to his publisher W. H. Allen & Co. in exchange for an annuity. Subsequently sold by that firm to Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880) in 1866
Purchased by Enriqueta Rylands (1843–1908) in 1901 from James Ludovic Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford (1847–1913).
Bequeathed by Enriqueta Rylands (1843–1908) in 1908 to the John Rylands Library, Manchester.
Record Sources
Bibliographical description based on an index created by Reza Navabpour circa 1993, derived from a manuscript catalogue by Michael Kerney, circa 1890s, concisely published as Bibliotheca Lindesiana, Hand-list of Oriental Manuscripts: Arabic, Persian, Turkish, 1898.
Subsequently augmented and enhanced by Jake Benson in 2023 with reference to the manuscript in hand.
Availability
To book an in-person or online appointment to consult the manuscript, visit Using the Special Collections Reading Rooms. For any other enquiries please email uml.special-collections@manchester.ac.uk.
Bibliography
Funding of Cataloguing
Iran Heritage Foundation
The John Rylands Research Institute
The Persian Heritage Foundation
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